The 30 Best AI Prompts for HR and People Operations

HR teams write a lot. Job descriptions, offer letters, performance reviews, termination scripts, policy documents, survey results summaries — and most of it is the same structure, rewritten from scratch every time. These prompts cut that down significantly.

I've grouped them by task. Each one is specific enough to get a usable first draft, not a generic one. Where your input is needed, the prompt uses {{clipboard}} as a placeholder — paste in whatever context you have.

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Recruiting & Job Descriptions

1. Write a job description

Write a job description for this role:

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Include: a one-paragraph company/team context, responsibilities (6-8 bullet points), requirements (hard skills vs nice-to-haves clearly separated), and a brief note on compensation/benefits. Use plain language — not corporate speak. Avoid "must be a self-starter."

2. Write inclusive job description language

Rewrite this job description to remove gendered, biased, or unnecessarily exclusionary language:

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Flag any phrases that research shows deter underrepresented candidates. Replace them with inclusive alternatives. Don't change the role requirements — just the framing.

3. Generate structured interview questions

Generate structured interview questions for this role:

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Provide 3-5 questions per competency. For each question include: the competency it tests, what a strong answer looks like, and what a weak answer looks like. Use behavioral (STAR) format.

4. Write a take-home assignment brief

Write a take-home assignment brief for this role:

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Include: what the candidate will do, what they'll submit, how long it should take (be honest), how it'll be evaluated, and what support they can ask for. Aim for fairness — don't ask for free work.

5. Write a candidate rejection email

Write a rejection email for a candidate who made it to the [interview stage] but wasn't selected for:

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Be direct but warm. Don't say "we'll keep your resume on file" unless we mean it. Acknowledge their time. Don't over-explain the decision. Under 150 words.

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Offer Letters & Onboarding

6. Write a job offer email

Write a job offer email for this candidate:

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Cover: the role and start date, compensation (salary, bonus, equity if applicable), benefits highlights, next steps, and an invitation to ask questions. Tone: warm and excited, not corporate. Don't make it feel like a form letter.

7. Write a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan

Create a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for a new [role] joining a [company type/size] team:

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Structure each phase: goals, must-do activities, people to meet, milestones to hit. Be specific — not "learn the product" but "complete the product onboarding checklist and shadow 2 customer calls."

8. Write a welcome message from the manager

Write a welcome message from a manager to a new team member starting on [date]. Here's some context about the person, the team, and what they'll be working on:

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Make it feel human and personal, not templated. Under 200 words. Include one specific thing you're looking forward to working on together.

9. Generate an onboarding checklist

Create an onboarding checklist for a new [role] at a [company type] company. Separate by: Day 1 (admin setup, introductions), Week 1 (foundational context), Month 1 (first deliverables, key relationships), and Month 3 (performance expectations).

Make each item actionable — not "learn about the company" but "complete the product tour and write a 1-pager on our top 3 competitors."

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Performance Management

10. Write a performance review

Write a balanced performance review for this employee. Here are my notes on their work this review period:

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Structure: strengths (specific examples), areas for growth (constructive, not just criticism), impact on the team, and 2-3 development goals for next period. Tone: direct and honest, not fluffy.

11. Write a performance improvement plan (PIP)

Draft a performance improvement plan for an employee in this situation:

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Include: the specific performance gaps (behaviours, not personality), the expected standard, support and resources being provided, check-in frequency, timeline, and what success looks like. Be clear about consequences without being punitive in tone.

12. Write a self-review template

Create a self-review template for [role level] employees. Include prompts for: key accomplishments (with impact), skills developed, goals not met and why, feedback for the manager, and goals for next period.

Make the questions specific enough to generate useful answers — not "what went well?" but "what's the highest-impact thing you shipped, and what would you do differently?"

13. Summarise 360 feedback into themes

Here is a collection of 360 feedback comments for an employee:

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Summarise into 3-5 key themes: strengths that appear repeatedly, growth areas that appear repeatedly, and any contradictions or mixed signals worth flagging. Be specific about patterns, not just general impressions.

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Employee Communications

14. Write an all-hands announcement

Write an all-hands email announcement for:

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Tone: transparent and direct. Cover: what's happening, why, what it means for employees, what the timeline is, and what questions people can ask and how. Avoid corporate spin — people can smell it.

15. Write a layoff communication

Write a communication to affected employees for a layoff situation. Here are the details:

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Be direct, compassionate, and specific. Cover: what's happening, why, what support is being provided (severance, references, benefits), timeline, and next steps. Don't start with "This is one of the hardest decisions we've ever made."

16. Write a team update after a difficult situation

Write a manager's message to their team after this situation:

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Acknowledge the difficulty without being dismissive. Be honest about what you know and don't know. Tell the team what's next and what support is available. Under 250 words.

17. Write a policy document

Draft a company policy for:

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Include: policy purpose, who it applies to, the policy statement (clear rules), examples of what's in/out of scope, how violations are handled, and who to contact with questions. Plain language — no legalese unless legally required.

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Engagement & Culture

18. Write an employee survey

Create an employee engagement survey for a [company type] company with [headcount] employees. Focus areas:

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Include: 8-12 questions, a mix of rating scales and open-ended questions, and questions that actually surface actionable feedback (not just "do you feel valued?"). Each question should map to a specific action the company could take.

19. Analyse employee survey results

Here are the results of an employee engagement survey:

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Identify: the top 3 areas of strength, the top 3 concerns, any demographic or team-level patterns worth noting, and 2-3 specific actions leadership could take that would likely improve scores in the next survey.

20. Write a manager's guide to a difficult conversation

Write a practical guide for managers on how to have this type of difficult conversation:

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Include: how to prepare, how to open the conversation, language to use and language to avoid, how to handle defensive reactions, and how to close with clear next steps. Be specific — this is a script, not a philosophy lecture.

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HR Operations

21. Summarise an employment contract

Summarise the key terms of this employment contract in plain English:

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Cover: compensation, hours, notice period, non-compete/non-solicitation clauses, IP ownership, and any unusual terms. Flag anything that seems unusual or worth negotiating. Note: this is a summary, not legal advice.

22. Write a severance agreement summary

Summarise the key terms of this severance agreement for an employee who needs to understand what they're signing:

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Plain English. Cover: what they're getting, what they're giving up (especially any release of claims), the timeline, and any restrictions (non-disparagement, non-compete). Flag anything they should ask a lawyer about.

23. Draft an HR policy FAQ

Draft a plain-English FAQ for this HR policy:

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Write the 8-10 questions employees are most likely to ask. Answer each one directly and honestly — don't hedge or use policy jargon. If an answer is "it depends," say what it depends on.

24. Write a reference letter

Write a reference letter for a former employee. Here are my notes on their work:

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Tone: genuine and specific. Include concrete examples, not generic praise. 3 paragraphs: who they are and how I know them, their specific strengths with evidence, why I'd recommend them. Don't oversell — specific and honest is more credible.

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People Analytics

25. Write an attrition analysis summary

Here are the results of an attrition analysis:

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Write a 2-page summary for leadership covering: overall attrition rate vs benchmark, which segments are leaving most (role, tenure, location), likely root causes based on exit data, and 3 specific retention recommendations with estimated impact.

26. Interpret engagement survey eNPS

Our employee NPS score is [X]. Here's the breakdown of promoters, passives, and detractors, and the top themes from open-ended responses:

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Interpret: what this score means in context, what's driving each segment, and what we should focus on in the next 90 days to move the needle.

27. Write a headcount planning model brief

Write a headcount planning brief for [department] for the next [timeframe]. Here's the context:

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Cover: current headcount and roles, growth scenarios (base/stretch), roles to hire in priority order, dependencies, and what would cause us to hire faster or slower. Keep it concise — this is input for a finance planning model, not a narrative.

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L&D and Career Development

28. Design a learning path for a role

Design a 6-month learning path for a [role level] [job function] who wants to grow toward [next level]. Here's the context on their current skills and gaps:

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Include: specific resources (courses, books, projects, mentors), milestones at 30/60/90/180 days, how to measure progress, and how the manager can support them.

29. Write career ladder criteria

Write career level criteria for [role function] from [level 1] to [level N]. Here's the current structure:

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For each level: responsibilities, required skills, expected impact, and the key signal that someone is ready to move up. Be specific — avoid "demonstrates leadership" without explaining what that looks like in practice.

30. Write a skip-level conversation guide

Write a guide for managers on how to run effective skip-level 1:1s. Cover: how to frame the conversation, 8-10 questions that get honest feedback, what to do with what you learn, and how to follow up without burning the employee who was candid.

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Most of these prompts become 10x more useful when they're stored somewhere you can fire them instantly. If you're copy-pasting these into a notes app every time, Promptzy is worth a look — it's a free Mac app that stores prompts as Markdown and pastes them into any app in under 2 seconds.